THE HAGUE, January 23. /TASS/. The International Criminal Court prosecutor said he is seeking arrest warrants for two top officials of the Taliban (banned in Russia), including the group’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada.
An application has also been submitted for the arrest of Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the chief justice of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban’s name for Afghanistan, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement.
According to the statement, there are reasonable grounds to believe that both men bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.
"My office has concluded that these two Afghan nationals are criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women, as well as persons whom the Taliban perceived as not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women. This persecution was committed from at least 15 August 2021 until the present day, across the territory of Afghanistan," Khan said in the statement.
"These are the first applications for arrest warrants in the situation in Afghanistan. My office will file further applications for other senior members of the Taliban soon," he went on to say.
In 2020, the ICC approved an investigation into genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Afghanistan since May 1, 2003. However, the Afghan authorities later asked the court, in accordance with the Rome Statute, to transfer the investigation to them and the ICC prosecutor's office suspended its work in this area. The situation changed with the seizure of power in Afghanistan by the Taliban in August 2021. The court found that materials received from Afghanistan did not prove that Afghan officials had investigated or were investigating crimes to the extent that the ICC Prosecutor's Office intended to conduct its own investigation and which would justify even a partial adjournment. Based on this, the investigation in Afghanistan was reopened on October 31, 2022.
Women’s rights in Afghanistan after 2021
In 2024, Akhundzada banned girls from appearing in public places with their faces and body parts uncovered, and also prohibited them from singing and reading aloud. The Taliban leader vowed that Sharia law would apply throughout entire Afghanistan. He also announced then that Afghan women would be punished for adultery by stoning to death.
In 2022, the Taliban leader ordered the introduction of Shariah-compliant sentencing, up to and including the death penalty for theft, insulting Islam, adultery, same-sex relations and other offenses. Akhundzada suspended classes for girls in Afghan universities, banned the presence of women, including professors, in universities, and ordered their removal from all national and international non-governmental organizations.
After taking control of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban banned women from appearing in public without a burka, a head-to-toe garment, citing the need to create an "Islamic environment" in the country.